INVERSO.CA
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About inverso

Inverso Productions was founded in 2012 in Spain to experiment with other art forms and ways of creating dance. Since 2017, Inverso is a registered non-profit society in BC.

Inverso aims to develop collaborative ventures with other artists and arts organizations in performances, mediation and dialogue.  Inverso's works have involved the visual arts, text and literature, theatre, film, music and science. Inverso's collaborators include Berlin-based scenographer Yoko Seyama, writer Barbara Adler, videographer David Cooper and composer James Meger, and organizations such as TRIUMF UBC, Curiosity Collider, SFU School of Contemporary Arts and Pi Theatre and Sawdust Collector.

Inverso Productions has produced two full-length works: Brittle Failure, which has been a part of tours and festivals in Spain, the Netherlands and Canada and Spooky Action, which recently premiered in Canada to enthusiastic reviews. Inverso has been presented in the CaDance Festival and Korzo Theatre in the Netherlands, International Festival Madrid en Danza and the Reina Sophia Museum in Spain, the Chutzpah Festival, the Banff Festival of the Arts, the Gothenburg Dance and Theatre Festival, the Schmiede Festival, EDAM Choreographic Series, the Fluid Festival in Calgary, the Dancing on the Edge Festival and the Vancouver International Dance Festival.

A new endeavour for Inverso is the expansion of our work with and for emerging dance artists. We are proud of Performance Research Project collaborations with Ballet BC, Chor Leoni Men's Choir, and Bard on the Beach, Bloom Mascall Dance and the Vancouver Film School. We have offered in-person workshops with award winning Indigenous artist, Margaret Grenier,
Crystal Pite, Renee Segouin, Wen Wei Wang,  Heather Myers and Shay  Kuebler as well as streamed workshops with Ayman Harper/ Forsythe, Sarah Reynolds/ Walerski, Marla Waal/ ELDOA, Clyde Archer/Sharon Eyal, Beatrice Larrivee/ Gaga, Khoudia Toure/ Hip hop, Yannick Bouquin and Christophe Dozzi. Our online offerings have included workshops with many international artists from the Netherlands, US, Germany, Spain, Senegal and France joined by dancers all over the world. We also held workshops with Jermaine Spivey of Kidd Pivot and Michael Schumacher in the Spring and Fall of 2021 co-presented with SFU Woodwards and SFU Cultural Programs which were attended internationally. Since September 2021 Inverso hosts a new OPEN series of workshops in partnership with The Dance Centre.

Ongoing partnerships include The Scotiabank Dance Centre and The Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. We are grateful for past and present project support from the City of Vancouver, BC Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts and private donors.
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Our TEam

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Lesley Telford

Artistic and Executive Director
Lesley is a choreographer and the Artistic Director of Inverso Productions. She is grateful to live and work on the unceded and ancestral territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh people. Through Lesley’s choreographic work she explores the physicality and spatial structures of emotional states at the intersection of dance, the visual arts, text and film. Her work has been described as having “a profound way of tapping into very deep recesses of our emotional and intellectual landscapes”. She combines impulse-based physicality with sensitivity to the minute relationships between performers and their environment.  

As an educator and mentor, she has a long-standing commitment in support of emerging dance artists. To further this purpose Inverso has developed outreach and professional platforms to provide valuable opportunities and experience. She has taught internationally in many companies and schools.

Lesley finished her studies in Montreal at L´École Supérieur de Danse du Québec before joining the company Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. She went on to dance with Nacho Duato´s Compañia Nacional de Danza in Madrid, Spain. Most recently she danced with Netherlands Dans Theater 1.  Lesley has a Master of Arts in Cultural Production from the University of Salzburg and the Mozarteum. 

Season 2021/22 will include new commissions from Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and her third creation for Ballet BC. She has also created works for Netherlands Dans Theater 1, Hubbard Street Dance Company 2, Compañia Nacional de Danza 2, Ballet Vorpommern, International Project for Dance in Rome- DAF, Butler Ballet, University of Utah, and Arts Umbrella Dance Company. 

She founded her own company, Inverso Productions, in 2012 to experiment with other art forms and ways of creating dance. She has worked with many collaborators including scenographer Yoko Seyama, writer Barbara Adler, videographer David Cooper and composer James Meger among others. Through Inverso Productions she has produced and choreographed two full-length works: Brittle Failure, which has been a part of tours and festivals in Spain, the Netherlands and Canada and Spooky Action, which recently premiered in Canada to enthusiastic reviews. Her work has been presented in the CaDance Festival and Korzo Theatre in the Netherlands, International Festival Madrid en Danza and the Reina Sophia Museum in Spain, the Chutzpah Festival, the Banff Festival of the Arts, the Gothenburg Dance and Theatre Festival, the Schmiede Festival, EDAM Choreographic Series, the Fluid Festival in Calgary, and the Vancouver International Dance Festival. 

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Heather Myers

Artistic Associate
Heather is a mother, dance artist, and arts facilitator.

She received her training at the National Ballet School and The Royal Winnipeg Ballet School and danced with Alberta Ballet, Boston Ballet, and Netherlands Dance Theatre. As a company dancer, and later, as an independent artist she has worked with artists including Crystal Pite, Ohad Naharin, Jiri Kylian, Medhi Walerski, Lucinda Childs, Ivan Perez, Marina Mascarell, and Lesley Telford. Heather received the Clifford E. Lee Award for choreography in 2009 and has worked as a commissioned choreographer and instructor of technique and creative process locally and internationally. While living in Holland, Heather organized community-based interdisciplinary improv sessions as part of her work on NDT’s SWITCH committee, and later initiated dance exchange/workshops during personal travel in Indonesia and India.

Most interested in questions around creative process, context, and the social relevance of artistic intelligence, Heather now enjoys supporting the evolution and delivery of other people's work. Pursuing these interests, Heather is currently completing The Tamalpa Institute's Teacher Training Program in Life/Art processes and Somatic Movement Education, and recently completed an Arts Management program at Capilano University which included practicum work with The PuSh Festival, The Roundhouse, and Plastic Orchid Factory. She has also studied Contemporary Arts at SFU, and studied with Ruth Little and Liz Lerman in Banff, among others. Thanks to the trust and generosity of her community, Heather now collaborates with various artists and organizations as an instructor, rehearsal director, creative advisor, interpreter, writer, and production assistant. She lives in Burnaby, BC, on unceded Central Coast Salish Territory.

Collaborators past and Present

Stéphanie Cyr/ Dance artist
​Kiera Hill/ Dance artist
Eden Solomon/ Dance artist
Brandon Alley/ Dance artist
Anya Saugstad/ Dance artist
​Lucas Wilson-Bilbro/ Dance artist
Barbara Adler/ Writer
​James Meger/ Composer
Yoko Seyama/ Scenography
Alan Brodie/ Lighting
​Heidi Quicke/ Production Manager
David Cooper/ Photographer, Videographer

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Inverso's Board of Directors

Peter Dickinson, President 
Kristin McDougall, Vice President
Christina Bulbrook, Secretary
Peter Belanger, Treasurer

Please Donate 

Please consider a donation big or small to help us with some very exciting new developments. It is because of the investment of individuals such as yourself that we are able to present original, challenging work that we are proud to share and serve as a support system for emerging artists. As Inverso Productions, we are thrilled to be active artists in this community and we are grateful to have your support along this path.

Please click on the link below to contribute through The Scotiabank Dance Centre on our 
behalf.
Please specify INVERSO PRODUCTIONS in the comments. An official tax receipt will be provided. 

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​Inverso Productions
  • Home
  • lesleytelford.com
  • About
  • Productions
  • Summer Intensive
  • Book Here
  • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion